Jenny Deans

Jenny Deans is not someone who sits around twiddling her fingers or spending her winter evenings idly. Instead she came up with an idea to embrace the season as a time for inspiration and creativity. Working at the warm kitchen table she shares with her husband, Steve, Jenny crafts adorable hand-made stone houses. She says “This display at the Green Gold Gallery is my winter’s work and they are all hand-made with great love. Come and have a look. They’re all made using local treasures found on the South Canterbury beaches, our glorious river beds and walks around Peel Forest. And they even have names! Jenny’s little houses invite a touch of charm and a gentle connection to nature, bringing warmth and whimsy into your home.

Jenny’s artistry is deeply influenced by the creativity in her family, the legendary artist Austen Deans, whose own work embodies a profound appreciation for the landscapes of Canterbury. While Austen captures the grandeur of the natural world through expressive landscapes, Jenny draws from a playful curiosity about her surroundings. Her creations reflect a sense of wonder, inviting viewers to explore the stories behind each little stone house. The playful, imaginative quality of her work reflects a shared artistic legacy that celebrates family and creativity.

Featuring both Jenny’s and Austen’s pieces side by side is a celebration of their shared appreciation of nature and the joy of creating. This rare opportunity to feature generations of the Deans family alongside the works of Elles Smallegoor and myself creates a rich narrative of family legacy, artistry, and a bond to the land we all cherish.

Austen Deans

It’s an honour to feature the unframed works on paper by legendary artist Austen Deans, one of New Zealand’s most revered landscape artists. Known for his expressive depictions of Canterbury and his service as a war artist, Austen’s works embody resilience, heritage, and artistry. In this exhibition we will have a broad collection of his works on paper. To display Jenny and Austen’s pieces side-by-side is to celebrate a family legacy of curiosity and nature-inspired creativity. While Jenny’s playful and tactile creations draw from childhood memories and her love for the natural world, Austen’s landscapes reflect a life of dedication to capturing its grandeur, each piece telling a story of exploration and reverence.

This is a rare opportunity to explore the remarkable art of Austen Deans. With Austen’s passing, his estate is offering his works for sale, making this an ideal time to discover a piece that resonates with you.

Austen Deans followed his passion for both nature and art, which brought him deep fulfillment and a sense of purpose throughout his life. He encouraged others, including his family, to become artists because he saw firsthand how immersing oneself in art could lead to a life of adventure and connection to the land.

Elles Smallegoor

Elles Smallegoor artfully balances her time between the demanding world of dairy farming and her passion for painting. Her art is a vibrant expression of her diverse interests – academia, agriculture, and the natural world. Known for her versatility in oil painting, she presents thought provoking works in this exhibition. At the ‘Gates of the Green Man’ features young environmentalist Greta Thunberg on the threshold of nature’s mysteries, evoking our collective responsibility to protect the earth. In ‘A Day by the River’, Elles captures the simple joy of a sunlit day by the water, reminding us of the abundant beauty freely given by nature. Her ability to move between impressionistic landscapes and symbolic storytelling infuses her work with contemporary relevance and emotional depth.

Rachael Linton

Artist, Rachael Linton, is from the South Canterbury village of Peel Forest. After spending a decade in the UK honing her skills as a gilder, she returned to NZ last year to establish the Green-Gold Gallery in Geraldine, proudly supporting fellow local artists and showcasing exquisite paintings and sculptures. With over 50 exhibitions across NZ, UK, and Europe, Linton is known for gold leaf gilding and for the art technique she developed for fixing ‘cymatics’ (sound made visible) onto her paintings, earning publication for her discovery. The works in this show are new never seen before small works.

This exhibition features new, small-scale works, intimate and experimental pieces that explore resonance within a communicative, living world. Dubbed an “acoustic alchemist,” Rachael is an abstract painter who draws on themes such as harmony and chaos, radiance and illumination. She balances traditional craftsmanship with intuitive painting, allowing an aspect of the unconscious and numinous, a state of cosmic consciousness, to enter her work. Themes of nature, particularly the interconnectedness of trees and landscapes, her artworks bridge art and science, collaborating with unseen forces of nature; sound, gravity, and hydrodynamics. Her artworks are traditionally hand-framed with genuine gold leaf, making them coveted additions to any art collection.

Growing up in Peel Forest, I was deeply inspired by Austen Deans. He once told me, “If you can do anything with your life, Rachael, become an artist.” Through this, he conveyed his hope that I would embrace a life of creativity, adventure, and appreciation for nature, just as he had done. His love for en plein air painting (painting art outdoors) allowed him to live each day doing what he loved most. This became a legacy he shared, encouraging future generations to explore a life spent capturing the beauty of the natural world while being fully immersed in it.